Tuesday, 30 April 2013

EXPERIMENT 3: Assessment on the Effect of Different Content Materials on the Characteristics of an Ointment Formulation


Objectives:

The objectives of this experiment are:
    1.      To study and evaluate the effects of different formulation of ointment on the physical characteristics of     the formed ointment.
    2.      To study the theory of drug release rate for different formulation of ointment.

Introduction:

Ointment is aa topical medication applied on the body surfaces. In medical terms, an ointment is defines as a homogeneous, viscous, semi-solid preparation with a high viscosity, that is used for external application. An ointment has medicated ingredients which serve a protective, therapeutic, or prophylactic purpose when applied on the skin or mucous membranes .The medicated stuff or the ingredients present inside the ointment is actually the main base of ointments. There are 4 main ointment bases:
   o        Hydrocarbon bases, e.g. hard paraffin, soft paraffin, microcrystalline wax and ceresine
   o        Absorption bases like as wool fat, beeswax
   o        Water soluble bases like as macrogols 200, 300, 400
   o         Emulsifying bases like as emulsifying wax
Ointment is used to relieve the symptoms of dry skin conditions, such as cracked, scaly and itchy skin. The emulsifying ointment leaves a thin layer of oil on the skin's surface that stops water evaporating. This results in a soothing, softening and moisturising effect. In general this drug is used to moisturise and soften dry skin. They are used as emollients or for the application of active ingredients to the skin for protective, therapeutic, or prophylactic purposes and where a degree of occlusion is desired.
The desirable qualities in ointment included smooth, never gritty. The choice of an ointment base is of the utmost importance, and although it may be impossible for any single base to be ideal in every respect and should not cause sensitization or irritation, either to unabraded or traumatized skin.It also should not dehydrate the area to which it is applied,should be inert and compatible with a wide range of medicinal substances and with other bases with which it is likely to be mixed.
More trituration is necessary in preparing powders for incorporation into ointments than powders to be used in tablets or capsules. Methods of preparation of ointments included trituration and fusion. In trituration, finely subdivided insoluble medicaments are evenly distributed by grinding with a small amount of the base followed by dilution with gradually increasing amounts of the base, while in fusion, the ingredients are melted together in descending order of their melting points and stirred to ensure homogeneity.


Apparatus:
The apparatus required were a measuring cylinder, a weighing boat, a 100ml beaker, heater, a set of slap & spatula, a set of mortar & pestle, a dialysis bag (10cm), 2 threads, a glass rod, water-bath, a set of pipette (5ml) and a pipette-bulb, a plastic cuvette and spectrophotometer UV/Vis.

Materials:
The materials required were emulsifying wax, white soft paraffin, liquid paraffin, acetylsalicylic acid and distilled water.

Procedure:

     1.      50g of Emulsifying Ointment is prepared by using the formula following:

Emulsifying Ointment
Group
Material (g)
Total (g)
Emulsifying Wax
White Soft Paraffin
Liquid Paraffin
I
1,5
21
25
4
50
II
2,6
17
25
8
50
III
3,7
13
25
12
50
IV
4,8
9
25
16
50

     2.      5g of ointment formed is weighed. The ointment is put in the weighing boat and labeled. The texture, clarity and the colour of the ointment formed are discussed and compared.
     3.      1.5g of Acetylsalicylic acid is weighed and grinded with mortar and pestle.
     4.      The weighed amount of acetylsalicylic acid is mixed with 30g of ointment weighed by using levigation method.
     5.      7g of Acetylsalicylic acid ointment is weighed and filled into the dialysis beg. Both end of the beg are tied properly as shown as below.


      6.      The dialysis beg is put into a 100mL beaker with 50mL of distilled water which is been heated on 370C.
7.      With the interval of each 5 minutes, 3-4mL of the distilled water is pipetted out. The release of acetylsalicylic acid from the ointment is determined by using UV-visible spectrometer. Distilled water is stirred before the taking the sample.





Result and Discussion:

1.Compare physical characteristic of ointment that is formed and give your reasons.


          Emulsifying wax is a waxy solid prepared from the Cetostearyl Alcohol that contain Polyoxyethylene derivative of a fatty acid ester of Sorbitan. This emulsifying wax is function to binds the water and oil in a cream or lotion together permanently. If the emulsifying wax present the ingredients that made from mixture of oil and water will be separate into oil and water-based and it is needed to shake for mixing before used. Amount of emulsifying wax that are used in ointment IV is less compared to the emulsifying I, II and III. So that is why emulsifying ointment IV is easily to spread compared to emulsifying I, II and III. Less amount of the emulsifying wax that is used in the ointment IV make the ointment become very soft and it is easily to be applied to our skin.
          Besides, liquid paraffin has a variety of uses and it is a mixture of hydrocarbons that obtained through the petroleum distillation process. This liquid paraffin is clear, oily, transparent and also colorless liquid. It does not dissolve in the water, glycerol or cold ethanol, so that is why emulsifying ointment IV is very greasy compared to the ointment I, II and also III which contain less amount of liquid paraffin. Liquid paraffin also is low water absorbing and has characteristic of greasiness which make the ointment become very greasy if present more liquid paraffin in it. Clarity of the ointment for all emulsifying ointment is not clear because presence of the liquid paraffin which is oily. All emulsifying ointment are white in color because liquid paraffin have characteristic of colorless liquid and clear.

  1. Plot the graph of UV absorption against time. Give explanation.






In this experiment, the dialysis bag is being used to indicate the human skin where the drug is absorbed into the circulation or plasma, which is indicated by the distilled water at 37 degree Celsius. UV absorption in this experiment is used to measure the concentration of drug (acetylsalicylic acid) in the distilled water versus time.
From the graph, the UV absorption value increases with the time. This shows that the concentration of drugs in distilled water increases with time. This is true as the drug can diffuse into the distilled water throughout the period of immersing in the water. The gradient of the graph indicates the rate of release of the acetylsalicylic acid from the dialysis tube. Theoretically, the gradient will become less steep as the time passes. This is because as the time passes, the concentration of acetylsalicylic acid increases in the distilled water. Initially, the distilled water in the surrounding is very hypotonic to the content of in the dialysis, hence, the acetylsalicylic acid is very prone to diffuse out to the hypotonic solution. When the time passes, the isotonicity and the equilibrium of diffusion are more approached by the system, leading to the less steep gradient which indicates the slower release rate of acetylsalicylic acid. However, the graph of this experiment does not show such pattern. This may be due to some experimental errors occurring throughout the experiment.
The errors include the non-uniformity of stirring of distilled water in the beaker, leading the inaccurate result. Besides, errors may arise if the tube is not tied tightly or there is leakage on the membrane. Also, the temperature is not kept consistent enough. In addition, the wrong technique of using spectrophotometry device also causes the inaccurate results. The smooth surface of the cuvet should not face the source of UV light and the smooth surface should be cleaned before placing it into device.
At the time t=0, there might be little reading because some ointment acetylsalicylic acid is adhered to the outer membrane during preparation of dialysis bag.



3.      Graph of UV absorption against time is plotted for ointment formulation which contains different composition. Compare and discuss the results




Based on the graph above, the average UV absorption for each formulation increases with time owing to the increase in the concentration of acetylsalicylic acid in the beaker. In every interval of 5 minutes, 3ml of aliquot were taken from the solution surrounding the dialysis bag in the beaker rendering a progressive decrease in amount of solution in the beaker. The active ingredient in the ointment was being released into the solution in the beaker from time to time. Thus, the concentration of the active ingredient- acetylsalicylic acid increases progressively which is indicated by an increase in the average UV absorption.
The standard deviation for formulation Iis quite large. This may due to some errors occurred throughout the experiment. The formulation III shows a more consistent value compared to other formulations while the value of standard deviation for formulation II and IV is still acceptable.
Drug diffusion of emulsifying ointment is affected by the formulation of emulsifying wax and liquid paraffin. Theoretically, drug diffusion of emulsifying ointment I is the most followed by emulsifying ointment II, III and the drug diffusion of emulsifying ointment IV is the least. The more the emulsifying wax, the more the drug will be diffuse out. This is shown in the graph above.




4. What is the function of each materials used in preparation of the ointment? How can different the composition of Emulsifying wax and Liquid Paraffin can influence the physical properties of the ointment and the rate of diffusion of the drug from the ointment?

Emulsifying wax is a type of cosmetic emulsifying ingredient used primarily in the manufacturing of creams, lotions, and other beauty products. The emulsification occurs when two substances oil and water — are successfully bound together, creating a sort of glue that combines the ingredients of a product. The wax is sometimes labelled as emulsifying wax NF, which means it meets the standards of a National Formulary, which is a medical manual containing approved medicines in a particular country — the US, Britain and Australia are a few countries that have national formularies. When included in a recipe, emulsifying wax thickens the liquid and marries the oil- and water-based elements of the creation. The wax itself is made of either petroleum or vegetable wax that has been enhanced with a chemical detergent. It is white in color, solid, and possesses a light alcohol scent. The commonly prescribed amount of emulsifying wax NF is three to six percent of the total weight of the recipe.
 However, liquid paraffin is a type of hydrocarbon base and is used to reduce the viscosity of ointment or soften the ointment while white soft paraffin is used as an emollient base in the ointment formulation.
In this practical, different amount of emulsifying wax and liquid paraffin is used to prepare 50g of ointment. Since the emulsifying wax is used to combine the water, oil and other ingredients together in the ointment, the higher the concentration of the emulsifying wax, the harder of the ointment produced. For liquid paraffin, its function is to reduce the viscosity of ointment, thus the higher the concentration of the liquid paraffin, the lower the viscosity of the ointment which meant that the ointment is greasier. Hence, the ointment that increased in the concentration of emulsifying wax and reduced in the amount of liquid paraffin will be harder and less greasy compare to the ointment that prepared with the formulation that decreased in the concentration of emulsifying wax and increased in the amount of liquid paraffin.
When the concentration of emulsifying wax is increased, the diffusion of the drug will decrease because emulsifying wax will retard the drug release from the ointment and hence the diffusion of acetylsalicylic acid from ointment cannot occur perfectly. However, an optimum concentration of liquid paraffin in ointment will increase the diffusion rate of acetylsalicylic acid from the dialysis tube because acetylsalicylic acid which is hydrophilic tends to diffuse into the surrounding distilled water. The diffusion rate of acetylsalicylic acid will decrease when the concentration of liquid paraffin is beyond the optimum value. Thus, an optimum ratio of the phases is needed to produce an ointment with good physical property and also the drug releasing rate.

Conclusion:
As a conclusion, the assessment here showed that the ointment composition will affect the physical property and the drug release rate from the ointment.

References:

1.      Pharmaceutics: the science of dosage form design,Aulton, M.E.2002
4.      Jelvehgari, Mitra, Montazam, Hassan. 2011. Evaluation of mechanical and rheological properties of metronidazole gel as local delivery system. Archives of Pharmacal Research. 0253-6269
5.      H. C. Ansel, N. G. Popovich and L. V. Allen, Jr. 2005.  Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms and DrugDelivery Systems, 8th ed., Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore


           

1 comment:

  1. It is very difficult to insert the ointment into the dialysis test...I think we should have the proper alternative way to insert it. Otherwise, the accuracy will be affected

    ReplyDelete